{"id":371510,"date":"2025-12-26T16:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/371510\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T16:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T16:40:07","slug":"stranger-things-5-finale-questions-will-eleven-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/371510\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Stranger Things 5’ Finale Questions: Will Eleven Die?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers from Season 5, Volume 2 of \u201cStranger Things<\/a>, now streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one week, we\u2019ll have all the answers. But for now, we\u2019ve got a lot of questions.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the Christmas Day release of Volume 2 of \u201cStranger Things 5,\u201d many key plot points were fleshed, and we received a lot of information heading into the series finale, dropping on Dec. 31. We learned things we never knew \u2014 like, that\u00a0Eleven\u2019s powers come from Henry\u2019s blood, as transfused by Dr. Brenner, and that the Upside Down isn\u2019t its own dimension, but instead is a wormhole connecting our world and Vecna\u2019s, which Dustin has named the Abyss.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs we process \u201cShock Jock,\u201d \u201cEscape from Camazotz\u201d and \u201cThe Bridge,\u201d the latest \u201cStranger Things\u201d episodes, we\u2019ve rounded up the biggest burning questions ahead of the finale.<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: What is the ultimate importance of Nov. 6?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s the night Will Byers went missing in the series premiere in 2016, and it\u2019s the night Vecna wants to enact his plan to use the children he\u2019s kidnapped to bring the Abyss and Earth together \u2014 but why on this date? What was the significance in the first place that led Vecna to take Will?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tAND, why does Vecna want to bring the Abyss and Earth together?<\/p>\n

\n\tIs he just a nihilist who wants to burn it all down at this point? Or is something else going on?<\/p>\n

SOMETHING WE\u2019D LOVE TO KNOW: How did Hopper, El and Kali get out of the Upside Down?<\/p>\n

The Upside Down was in chaos, falling apart at the seams, and Nancy, Jonathan, Steve and Dustin were still stuck down there \u2014 but Hopper, El and Kali managed to get out off-screen. By the start of Episode 7, Hopper and the girls are back in Hawkins, but we don\u2019t see how they managed to get out amid the chaos after Nancy shot a hole in the exotic matter barrier. What did they do to get back out?<\/p>\n

\n\tWHILE WE\u2019RE AT IT: What blocked the Demogorgon from getting into the elevator to get Max and Lucas?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat Demo was coming right at them and when it jumped, something prevented it from getting through. And Karen Wheeler could only do so much in a day to save the kids, so what else was going on there?<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: What stopped the white goo from spreading in the Upside Down?<\/p>\n

\n\tNancy and Jonathan were saved from certain death in the Upside Down when the world stopped melting into white goo around them, and hardened enough that they could walk on it. While this happened just in time to keep the two alive \u2014 but not their relationship \u2014 it\u2019s not clear what caused it all to stop and stabilize, as the Upside Down is still seemingly compromised after Nancy shot through the barrier.<\/p>\n

\n\tSOMETHING WE\u2019D LOVE TO KNOW: Also, what happened to the ring?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, it\u2019s not that important, but it was flung on the floor and ultimately, it was what showed them that everything had hardened so\u2026 did someone pick it up?<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: Who is the man young Henry finds with the briefcase down in that mine shaft in the Nevada desert?<\/p>\n

\n\tFans who have seen the Broadway play \u201cStranger Things: The First Shadow\u201d will have a leg up on what is going on here, but it\u2019s still largely a mystery. We know Henry had a traumatic experience in the desert as a child, after which he was never the same. \u201cFirst Shadow\u201d reveals Henry entered an alternate dimension, known as Dimension X, and returned after 12 hours with altered blood, a changed personality and psychokinetic powers. Who is the stranger Henry came across, what was he holding onto \u2014 and what exactly happened to Henry to make him into this darker person?<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: What is the connection between Dimension X, the Abyss and the Upside Down?<\/p>\n

\n\tWe now know the Upside Down is a wormhole that connects Earth to this other world Vecna inhabits, the Abyss. Vecna was banished to the Abyss at Hawkins Lab by El back when he was Henry\/One. Despite their shared mistreatment from Brenner, El refused to join Henry in his plans for world domination and ripped a hole in reality that pushed him through to the Abyss. And Brenner, the other scientists and the military put up the exotic-matter barrier that stabilizes the Upside Down and separates the wormhole that goes between the Abyss and Earth from nothingness. And are the Abyss and Dimension X the same thing?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: Will Eleven sacrifice herself?<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the end of Episode 7, Kali told El that, for everyone\u2019s benefit, they should kill themselves after defeating Vecna. It\u2019s a sacrifice, Kali says, the two need to make so that the military cannot use their blood to try to create new kids like them, ending the cycle that began when Brenner gave Henry\u2019s blood to pregnant women to create El, Kali and the other telekinetic kids at Hawkins Lab. But will El actually go through with that?<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: Will any main characters die in the finale?<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Episode 5, El got very angry with Hopper for having revealed that he would have tried to fight Vecna alone, and for wearing the suicide vest as a failsafe. But now she\u2019s hiding her own secrets \u2014\u00a0from Hopper, and from everyone \u2014\u00a0about Kali\u2019s plan. If Eleven does somehow make it out alive, doesn\u2019t someone have to die, even if Matt Duffer told Variety that the show \u201cis not Game of Thrones’\u201d<\/a>? (And will it be Hopper, in some incredibly noble way?)<\/p>\n

\n\tALSO: Is Will going to reveal his feelings to Mike?<\/p>\n

\n\tWill came out in Episode 7, and was embraced by support and love from his friends and family members. And he seems to accept himself for who he is, and, on Robin\u2019s advice, not to rely on reciprocated feelings from someone to feel validated. But does that mean Will won\u2019t have a more direct conversation with Mike about his crush before the end of the series? And if he does, how will Mike react to it? (Also, not that Mike understood this slight, but was it kind of mean for him to refer to Mike as his Tammy?)<\/p>\n

\n\tBIG QUESTION: How much will Max be able to get inside Henry\u2019s head?<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Max died and was brought back to life in the Season 4 finale, her physical body was in a Hawkins hospital \u2014 but her mind was in the Abyss with Henry, in Vecna\u2019s mindspace. As Max makes it clear to Holly, she\u2019s spent the past 18 months exploring that terrain as she successfully hid from him. She knows he\u2019s afraid of the cave, and that he has vulnerabilities. As they gear up for their final battle with Vecna, Max tells Eleven to call upon her so they can use that knowledge against him.<\/p>\n

\n\tAND FINALLY: Will Nancy and Steve end up together?<\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s end with some silliness. Now that Nancy and Jonathan have called it quits, does this pave the way for Steve to get his dream of having a bunch of little nuggets with his ex? Just because \u201cJancy\u201d is over and she said nothing was really there with Steve, we all saw the chemistry. At the very least, it does open a door that has been firmly closed since Season 2.<\/p>\n

\n\tEmily Longeretta and Kate Aurthur contributed to this list.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 The Duffer Brothers<\/a> break down all the Volume 2 spoilers
\u2022 The Duffer Brothers <\/a>break down all the Volume 1 spoilers
\u2022 Noah Schnapp<\/a> on That Scene in Volume 2
\u2022 Noah Schnapp<\/a> on Turning Into the [SPOILER] in Volume 1
\u2022 Sadie Sink<\/a> on Max\u2019s Key Role in Volume 1
\u2022 Nell Fisher<\/a> on Playing Holly Wheeler in Season 5
\u2022 The Cast of \u2018Stranger Things\u2019<\/a> on the Show\u2019s Final Days
\u2022 Variety\u2019s \u201cStranger Things\u201d Oct. 15 Cover Story<\/a> About the Duffers
\u2022 Cara Buono<\/a> on Karen\u2019s Kick-Ass Hero Moment (At Last)
\u2022 The Duffer Brothers<\/a> on the \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Spinoff
\u2022 Linda Hamilton<\/a> on Being Millie Bobby Brown\u2019s \u2018Biggest Fan\u2019
\u2022 Shawn Levy<\/a> on \u2018Sticking the Landing\u2019 for Season 5
\u2022 David Harbour<\/a> on How \u2018Stranger Things\u2019 Has Changed Him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT:\u00a0This story contains spoilers from Season 5, Volume 2 of \u201cStranger Things, now streaming on Netflix. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,13671,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-371510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-stranger-things","10":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}